Objective: To investigate the factors influencing the survival of patients with skull base chordoma.
Methods: The clinical data of 79 patients with skull base chordoma, with a male/female ratio of 1.3:1, who received operations in Tiantan Hospital between May 1993 and June 2005 were selected. Thirteen factors, including gender, age, main symptoms, positive signs, bulk of the tumor, having received operation or radiotherapy before admission, grouping and staging of the tumor's location, and texture, adherence, pathological and resection grouping of the lesion, underwent Kaplan-Meier single factor analysis, Cox regression, and t-test.
Results: Kaplan-Meier single factor analysis displayed that having received operation or radiotherapy before admission, adherence, pathological and resection groupings of the lesion were the risk factors of the patients' life span (all P < 0.01). Cox multiple factor analysis showed that the all of the above factors except adherence grouping of the lesion had statistical significance on the patients' life span (all P < 0.01).
Conclusion: Having received operation or radiotherapy before admission, adherence, pathological and resection groupings of the lesion influence the prognosis of skull base chordoma.